Parental behavior and reproductive output in male-only cared and female-only cared clutches in the Eurasian Penduline Tit (<i>Remiz pendulinus</i>)

Pogány, Ákos; Dijk, René E. van; Horváth, Péter; Székely, Tamás

doi:10.1525/auk.2012.12080

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In Kentish plovers ( Charadrius alexandrinus ), a precocial bird species, removal experiments also indicated better remating opportunities for females than males (Székely, Cuthill, & Kis, ). In contrast, males are more likely to desert in another altricial species, the penduline tit ( Remiz pendulinus ; Pogány, Dijk, Horváth, & Székely, ; van Dijk et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Males paving the road to polyandry? Parental compensation in a monogamous nesting cuckoo and a classical polyandrous relative

Goymann

2019

Ethology

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Comparative studies have established the necessity for biparental care as an important factor for monogamy in freshwater fish and birds. However, whether two parents are really needed for offspring care remains an open question in many cases. I experimentally studied female and male contributions to offspring care in the white‐browed coucal (Centropus superciliosus), a monogamous and biparental cuckoo with a balanced adult sex ratio, and contrasted it with the sympatric black coucal (C. grillii), a classically polyandrous species with a male‐biased adult sex ratio and male‐only care. To study the necessity for biparental care, I temporarily removed one partner for 2 days to see whether the remaining parent compensated for the absence of its partner. Both female and male white‐browed coucals approximately doubled their feeding rates when their partner was absent, thus fully compensating the number of feeding visits to the nest. However, nestlings maintained their growth only, when males were present and females were removed. When males were removed and only females were present, nestling growth declined. Hence, only male white‐browed coucals fully compensated for the temporary loss of the partner, suggesting that females could benefit most from nesting with additional males—if these should become available. Removing female black coucals had no consequence for nestling feeding rates of male black coucals. But male black coucals had to be returned to their territories within a few hours to avoid harming the brood because female black coucals typically would not commence feeding their offspring. In conclusion, the breeding system of white‐browed coucals seems quite flexible and the relatively balanced adult sex ratio may stabilize monogamy in this species. Should ecological factors ever favour a stronger bias in the adult sex ratio towards males, female white‐browed coucals may easily become polyandrous and relinquish parental care entirely to males.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Males paving the road to polyandry? Parental compensation in a monogamous nesting cuckoo and a classical polyandrous relative

Goymann

2019

Ethology

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“…Finally, proportion of male feedings were calculated as the ratio of the number of feedings by the male to the sum of feedings by the male and female, to control for between-nest differences in number of feeding visits arising from differences in brood size (cf. [11]). Zebra finches feed their nestlings by regurgitating food a number of times during each visit to the nest, and we quantified these from the recordings taken from the inside of the nest box.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal and Reproductive Stage-Dependent Variation of Parental Behaviour in Captive Zebra Finches

et al. 2016

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Parental care plays a key role in ontogeny, life-history trade-offs, sexual selection and intra-familial conflict. Studies focusing on understanding causes and consequences of variation in parental effort need to quantify parental behaviour accurately. The applied methods are, however, diverse even for a given species and type of parental effort, and rarely validated for accuracy. Here we focus on variability of parental behaviour from a methodological perspective to investigate the effect of different samplings on various estimates of parental effort. We used nest box cameras in a captive breeding population of zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, a widely used model system of sexual selection, intra-familial dynamics and parental care. We investigated diurnal and reproductive stage-dependent variation in parental effort (including incubation, brooding, nest attendance and number of feedings) based on 12h and 3h continuous video-recordings taken at various reproductive stages. We then investigated whether shorter (1h) sampling periods provided comparable estimates of overall parental effort and division of labour to those of longer (3h) sampling periods. Our study confirmed female-biased division of labour during incubation, and showed that the difference between female and male effort diminishes with advancing reproductive stage. We found individually consistent parental behaviours within given days of incubation and nestling provisioning. Furthermore, parental behaviour was consistent over the different stages of incubation, however, only female brooding was consistent over nestling provisioning. Parental effort during incubation did not predict parental effort during nestling provisioning. Our analyses revealed that 1h sampling may be influenced heavily by stochastic and diurnal variation. We suggest using a single longer sampling period (3h) may provide a consistent and accurate estimate for overall parental effort during incubation in zebra finches. Due to the large within-individual variation, we suggest repeated longer sampling over the reproductive stage may be necessary for accurate estimates of parental effort post-hatching.

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“…The diverse care pattern in penduline tits, in particular the high frequency of nest desertion, is probably the result of sexual conflict between the two parents [28,30,31]. One parent is able by itself to incubate the clutch and feed all the nestlings until independence [32,33], giving each parent an incentive to desert the nest. Nest desertion puts the deserted partner in a difficult situation (a 'cruel bind' [34]): even if uniparental care is costly, the deserted partner has a strong incentive to stay, because deserting as well would condemn the offspring to death.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual variation and the resolution of conflict over parental care in penduline tits

et al. 2011

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Eurasian penduline tits (Remiz pendulinus) have an unusually diverse breeding system consisting of frequent male and female polygamy, and uniparental care by the male or the female. Intriguingly, 30 to 40 per cent of all nests are deserted by both parents. To understand the evolution of this diverse breeding system and frequent clutch desertion, we use 6 years of field data to derive fitness expectations for males and females depending on whether or not they care for their offspring. The resulting payoff matrix corresponds to an asymmetric Snowdrift Game with two alternative evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSs): female-only and male-only care. This, however, does not explain the polymorphism in care strategies and frequent biparental desertion, because theory predicts that one of the two ESSs should have spread to fixation. Using a bootstrapping approach, we demonstrate that taking account of individual variation in payoffs explains the patterns of care better than a model based on the average population payoff matrix. In particular, a model incorporating differences in male attractiveness closely predicts the observed frequencies of male and female desertion. Our work highlights the need for a new generation of individual-based evolutionary game-theoretic models.

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Parental behavior and reproductive output in male-only cared and female-only cared clutches in the Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus)

Cited by 12 publications

References 43 publications

Males paving the road to polyandry? Parental compensation in a monogamous nesting cuckoo and a classical polyandrous relative

Males paving the road to polyandry? Parental compensation in a monogamous nesting cuckoo and a classical polyandrous relative

Diurnal and Reproductive Stage-Dependent Variation of Parental Behaviour in Captive Zebra Finches

Individual variation and the resolution of conflict over parental care in penduline tits

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